Letters to the editor: It's parents' responsibility to educate child

Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - 12:01 am

Bill O’Reilly says that bad parenting has reached the point of “epidemic” in the U.S., and he claims “kids had it good in 1963.” (Aug 27, Sept. 3)

He claims, that “Some liberals want the government to replace bad parents by pouring billions of dollars into social programs” without telling us who how these liberals are, what constitutes bad parenting and which social programs.

In fact, O’Reilly wishes to do away with even food programs for kids, not to mention the poor.

Just what does O’Reilly recommend? Catholic schooling for every kid such as St. Brigid Elementary School where a Sister Thomas can slap the hell out of any kid, and the local priest can pray the gay away.

In addition, he wants President Obama to publicly attack bad parenting from the bully pulpit of the White House because he claims it is a “national scandal,” something he did not ask George W. Bush to do during is eight years of war. But O’Reilly “feels sorry for the urchins these days.” What to do? Put them in Catholic schools in order for Sister Thomas to slap them silly several times a day to keep the chilly fog on Long Island from enveloping them.

Who but regressives listens to O’Reilly’s tripe?

All we have to do is to start each school day with public prayer — and that prayer solves all our problems. Rubbish! God isn’t engineering Catholic schools to replace bad parents. And I believe in private prayer and public schools.

The responsibility to educate a child belongs to parents — good, bad or ugly — but in the USA that responsibility is covered in state constitutions (in loco parentis) not the U.S. Constitution (there power comes from we the people via consent, not from God). Therefore, kids are required to attend school, even if it’s home schooling as is the case in Indiana.